Ailing A-Rod will make more than Astros

Friday

Mar 29, 2013 at 2:00 AM

NEW YORK — Alex Rodriguez will make more this year than all the Astros combined — a lot more. And he won't even play the first half of the season, if at all. A-Rod's $29 million salary tops the bigs for the 13th straight season, according to a study of contracts by the AP.

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Alex Rodriguez will make more this year than all the Astros combined — a lot more. And he won't even play the first half of the season, if at all. A-Rod's $29 million salary tops the bigs for the 13th straight season, according to a study of contracts by the AP.

The Yankees are on track to have the highest payroll on opening day for the 15th straight year, climbing above the Los Angeles Dodgers to a projected $228 million with this week's acquisition of Vernon Wells.

With teams due to set opening-day rosters Sunday, the Yankees' payroll will be nearly 10 times the spending of the Astros, who have shrunk their payroll to about $25 million.

"No one expects us to do well," Astros pitcher Lucas Harrell said. "So when we do well, it's going to be kind of like, 'Oh, wow.' I definitely think we have a chance to shock a lot of people this year."

Rodriguez, recovering from hip surgery, is followed on the money list by Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee at $25 million.

Three of the top six will start the season on the DL, with A-Rod joined by Mets pitcher Johan Santana (third at $24.6 million) and Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira (sixth at $23.1 million). Wells is fourth at $24.6 million and CC Sabathia fifth at $24.3 million, giving the Yankees four of the top six.

The Astros and Miami Marlins have no such worries about pricey players getting hurt. After lifting payroll to about $100 million at the start of last year and then flopping in the first year of their new ballpark, the Marlins slashed spending to around $40 million.

The price of competing keeps going up. The average salary projects to about $3.67 million, up about $200,000 from the start of last season.

For all the talk of austerity under owner Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees will break the record of $209 million it set in 2008 and top the $200 million mark for the sixth straight season. While the Yankees will pay luxury tax for the 11th consecutive year in 2013, they want to get under the $189 million tax threshold in 2014.

"We've actually increased our payroll this year," Yankees president Randy Levine said. "As sometimes happens, certain people like to ignore the facts instead of the reality. These are the same people who one day criticize us for spending too much money, the next day criticize us for spending too little. The goal of the team every year is to do what's necessary to field a championship team. That goes for this year and, as Hal Steinbrenner has said, next year and every year going forward."

The Mets hardly resemble a high-revenue team anymore and are down to about $90 million — and that includes about $17.5 million to account for the settlement with departed outfielder Jason Bay. After the Mets' owners settled a lawsuit caused by the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, they promised to resume spending. But they haven't broken out the checkbook just yet, except for a new long-term deal with new team captain David Wright.